The system failure of The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) on January 11, 2022 was caused by personnel neglecting operating procedures, which resulted in flight disruptions across the United States (US).
“The core operating system for the database has been around since the 1990s,” a source close to the matter told CNN, adding: “Regardless of the improvements made to the system in recent years, it still has the heart of an 89-year-old man”. According to a statement issued by the FAA on January 11, 2023, at 6:30 PM (UTC -5), the agency’s ‘preliminary work has traced the outage to a damaged database file’.
The source also said to CNN that the NOTAM system is at least six years away from an upgrade.
NOTAMs, which inform flight crews and related personnel about any abnormalities in the National Air System (NAS), are a crucial component of flight safety. The system, which failed in the early morning hours of January 11, 2022, caused multiple flight disruptions in the US and even a complete two-hour stoppage of domestic departures within the country.